Montini: Las Vegas shooting is a shock but not a surprise

A concertgoer captured the moment a gunman opened fire on an outdoor music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, killing scores of people and wounding hundreds of others. Country music star Jason Aldean was performing when the gunfire began.
AP

EJ Montini: There was a time we'd say, 'I can't believe that could happen here.' Not any longer.

Please tell me this scene shocks us

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A family grieves during a candlelight vigil for Charleston Hartfield at Police Memorial Park. Hartfield, an off-duty Las Vegas police officer, was killed Sunday during the mass shooting at a music festival across from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Sherri Camperchioli and Jordan Cassel, volunteers from Las Vegas, staple photos of the mass shooting victims on crosses artist Greg Zanis of Aurora, Ill., constructed. He drove across the country to install them on Las Vegas Boulevard to honor the people killed in the mass shooting. Zanis said he has created crosses for many national tragedies.
Tom Tingle, USA TODAY Network

Jean Green Dunbar of Las Vegas plants shrubs at the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden in the Arts District of Las Vegas Oct. 5. The garden is intended to help the city heal from the massacre that happened Sunday.
Tom Tingle, The Arizona Republic via the USA TODAY Network

Jeanne Belez of Marysville, Ore. places a bouquet of flowers at a memorial on a median on Las Vegas Blvd. near the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Oct. 4, 2017.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Arizona Diamondbacks remember their former employee Christiana Duarte, who was killed this week in the Las Vegas shooting during pregame ceremonies of the National League Wild Card game on Oct. 4, 2017 in Phoenix, Ariz.
Rob Schumacher, The Arizona Republic, via USA TODAY NETWORK

Crystal Fernandez, left, and Carmen Arias share a moment at a memorial that sprung up on a median on Las Vegas Blvd. near the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Oct. 4, 2017.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Linda Proctor hugs Dr. Robert T. Baggott as her husband, Donnie Proctor, waits to the right during a memorial at Community Church of Vero Beach, Fla. on Oct. 4, 2017, for those who died in the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Jeremiah Wilson, TCPalm, via USA TODAY NETWORK

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania arrive at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. . President Trump is planning on meeting victims of Sunday's mass shooting.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

With the lights of the Las Vegas Strip as a backdrop, people gathered on a vacant lot on Las Vegas Blvd. for a candlelight vigil in the memory of the victims of the Mandalay Bay mass shooting, Oct. 2, 2017.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Michael Kordich, 34, a firefighter with the San Bernardino County Fire Dept., performed CPR on a fellow concert goer who had been shot, before Kordich himself was shot in the arm during the Las Vegas massacre. He talks about the life-changing events from his hospital bed at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Oct. 3, 2017.
Tom Tingle, The Arizona Republic via the USA TODAY Network

Sara Rivero, on right, with her mom Laura Rodriguez, in center and Gisell Rivera, her step mother, burn a candle at the memorial site on Las Vegas Blvd, for friends who died at the concert.
Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic via the USA TODAY Network

Members of the Las Vegas community pray during an emotional vigil for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting at Mountain Crest Park, Oct. 3, 2017.
Jay Calderon, The Desert Sun Via the USA TODAY Nertwork

Matthew Edwards puts a teddy bear and flowers at the memorial site. When asked about his feelings he said "I cannot understand what has happened here... what would drive a man to do what he did"
Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic via the USA TODAY Network

With the lights of the Las Vegas Strip as a backdrop, people gathered on a vacant lot on Las Vegas Blvd. for a candlelight vigil in the memory of the victims of the Mandalay Bay mass shooting, Oct. 2, 2017.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

People gather at Trocadero plaza as the lights of the Eiffel tower are turned off, in Paris on Oct. 2, 2017. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the Eiffel tower will turn off its lights to pay tribute to Las Vegas and Marseille victims.
Kamil Zihnioglu, AP

The American flag is at half-staff at the White House in Washington on Oct. 2, 2017. President Donald Trump ordered that flags be lowered at all government buildings to honor the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

People walks past flowers left on a pedestrian bridge overlooking Las Vegas Blvd. in Las Vegas on Oct. 2, 2017, two blocks from the Mandalay Bay Hotel Casino where a gunman killed dozens and injured hundreds of people attending a concert.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Broken windows are seen on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino after a lone gunman opened fired on the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Oct. 2, 2017, in Las Vegas.
David Becker, Getty Images

An injured person is tended to in the intersection of Tropicana Ave. and Las Vegas Boulevard after a mass shooting at a country music festival nearby on October 2, 2017 in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller, Getty Images

A woman sits on a curb at the scene of a shooting outside of a music festival along the Las Vegas Strip, Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Las Vegas. Multiple victims were being transported to hospitals.
John Locher, AP

People are searched by Las Vegas police at the Tropicana Las Vegas during an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Strip. Multiple victims were being transported to hospitals after a shooting late Sunday at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.
Chase Stevens, Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP

A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer stands in the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Ave. after a mass shooting at a country music festival nearby on October 2, 2017 in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller, Getty Images

People take cover at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after apparent gun fire was heard on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are reports of an active shooter around the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
David Becker, Getty Images

Law enforcement officials say a 64-year-old man named Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd of an outdoor concert Sunday night near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, killing more than 50 and injuring more than 500 others.

You’ve probably seen some of the chaotic cell phone videos. You’ve been watching TV or checking your computer or watching those videos on your own cell phone.

You’ve probably heard some of the stories of witnesses, stories of fear and confusion and death.

You’ll hear more in the hours and days to come.

The template for covering a shooting

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After the Las Vegas shooting, we need to do more than 'massacre, mourn, repeat,' columnist EJ Montini says.

Those of us in the news business have a template for covering mass shootings. The initial reports are filled with the terror, panic and confusion of the scene.

There are then the names and stories of the dead. The names of stories of those who heroically responded.

The story of the killer, who in this instance fired from a hotel window and is suspected of killing himself.

There will be the story of the arsenal he possessed. Where he got the weapons. How he got them into the hotel. The plan he made. How he executed that plan.

Were there clues? Were signs missed?

And there is the sound from those videos.

The sound of an automatic weapon or weapons.

It drills deep into our bones. That sound.

Can we at least talk about gun violence?

And, yes, there will be talk, again, about Congress considering some form of national common sense gun regulation. And it will go nowhere. Just once after an event like this it would be useful for lawmakers to do something.

After their moment of silence, Congress could hold a hearing. And, nationally, we could hold a conversation. A real one. How to better protect ourselves while protecting Second Amendment rights.

Why not introduce a universal background check on ALL sales or exchanges of weapons? Are extended ammunition magazines necessary? Semi-automatic weapons? Is it wise to allow the sale of weapons and ammunition over the internet?

What happened in Las Vegas is now the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.